David Brooks Is Trying Hard To Be Positive About America

David Brooks is a conservative who had been comfortable as a Republican until The Donald captured the Republican Party.  In this article he describes himself as an old fashioned Whig which had an ideology similar to his own.  He claims that the Whig ideology is alive and well at the local level, and he provides several examples in which local communities have been revived by citizens with a community spirit.  He does not believe that localities, acting alone, can restore our nation in the Whig tradition.  He suggests that we can arrest the decay that has been underway for several years by nationalizing the efforts that are underway at the local level in many parts of our nation.  I would like to believe that Brooks can inspire the hopefulness that he finds at the local level to the national level.  However, that is more easily said than done.  Donald Trump's takeover of the Republican Party was not an accident.  He exploited the divisions in America that had become the foundation of the Republican Party.  There may be some Whigs left in the GOP but most have been silent as the Trump base has been organized into a position of power within the party.  Trump spends most of his time trying to retain control of his base and positioning himself as their powerful leader.  We will have to see whether the Democratic Party can deal with the divisions within its party and win enough seats in the mid term elections to loosen Trump's control of the national government.  There are no Whigs running for election in 2018.  The Republican Party must be thrown out of power in order to contain Donald Trump.  They have been too willing to give Trump what he wants in order to retain whatever power they think they might have in a Party controlled by Trump.